время, до этого

In certain Pimsleur 2 lessons they say the word время which seriously sounds to me like "Vrena." In many lessons they say this word and every time it sounds like Verna. Is this one of those cases where a word is pronounced different than how it displays?

In a separate lesson they say до этого, da etava. But then in a later lesson they say dough etava. What are the rules for how this is pronounced?